


Cute Girls With Short Haircuts

by pyrrhickong



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Angst, F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 19:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11950833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyrrhickong/pseuds/pyrrhickong
Summary: She hadn’t meant it to be this way. But then again, Rise rarely meant for certain things to happen.





	Cute Girls With Short Haircuts

She hadn’t meant it to be this way. But then again, Rise rarely meant for certain things to happen. Finally break into show business and actually find success, become a sexual icon for perverts around the country. Try to go back home so she can mope and just be a normal girl again, some bowl cut-clad hunk tries to befriend her and she gets thrown into a magical television and taken prisoner by herself in her own Freudian strip club. Try to get closer to said bowl cut-clad hunk, show some energy again and really work at it, figure out that he’s just not into you the same way and have him leave a massive hole in your group dynamic when he moves away. Try to get this adorably lost loser in a relationship with his crush…

She remembered the school festival. It was a ridiculous situation, him forced into a cross-dressing pageant, the idol on hiatus volunteering herself as his makeup artist and stage mom. Ridiculously as he was proportioned, there were ways to make it work - she knew at least four of the guys were into more toned women, and it only takes a few really vocal fans to start a trend. Cover up his scar, make the forehead look a little smaller with the right wig, and Kanji Tatsumi would look like a presentable starlet. If she could save him from himself, that is.

“No, ughhh, come on! Fold your lips like THIS, it keeps the makeup more evenly applied!” Rise shouted, demonstrating the proper technique for the confused now-crossdresser. Kanji attempted to follow, sucking his lips in, before choking and coughing shortly after.

“D-dammit! That tastes terrible!” he complained.

“Well you’re not SUPPOSED to taste lipstick, Moronji!”

“How the Hell don’t I?! It’s right there next to my tongue and I’m suckin’ it in so the mouth gets smaller, I’m nervous as Hell already, what am I s’possed to do?!”

Rise threw her hands up in exasperation. Times like these were when Kanji was truly hopeless, she’d come to find out. Any form of excitement and he turned into a mess of raw emotion and gut reactions. Calm, he was surprisingly insightful, easy to talk to, and charming. Well, maybe not CHARMING charming, but at least a five out of ten. Like, grade-A “perfect for someone with dependency issues”. She’d think of a better way to market that to Naoto later.

“Look just… breathe, okay?” Rise slowly lifted and lowered her hand to a steady rhythm, something for Kanji to focus on to relax his breathing. The boy, for his part, was able to focus in on this for several seconds before a hard exhale marked the end of his interest in Rise’s hand.

“S-sorry,” Kanji started, “I jus’… “

“You juss?” Rise teased, giggling. 

“… They’re all gonna be laughin’. No matter how hard I try…”

This got Rise to frown. Kanji was often very protective of his fears, preferring to hide them behind fits of anger whenever possible. In all of her excitement to make her friend into a prize-winning model, she’d forgotten about the actual presentation aspect. Confidence had always been her way of winning over a crowd, allaying those fears of everyone finding her a sideshow while on-stage. Kanji… had the disadvantage of a lot of the student body wanting to see him fall flat on his face. Something to give them a good laugh, to remove the idea of the scary first-year who could flatten bikers and make cops go running with a glare from their minds.

“H-hey, you can’t say that before even trying! I mean…” Rise started before Kanji was quick to interrupt her.

“It’s the same old shit, Rise! I do somethin’ a little unmanly, and every girl, every woman out there s’gonna laugh!” Kanji threw his arms up, pulling the fabric of his dress with him. “S-shit!” Almost as quickly as his outburst had started, Kanji went to check his dress, enduring that there was no tear, no smear, no imperfection.

“You’re good, seriously!” Rise reassured. Of course, she had to. She only had one dress that Kanji had worked on - that took her WEEKS to get him to admit it wasn’t his mother who made it - but he really went above and beyond to ensure durability. The inside of the dress was cross-stitched after the main dress was built to ensure that the inside was comfortable to move around in, as well as to avoid potential tearing. When Rise has complaints about it making her look bigger, it took her only putting it on to know that most of the stitching was located at the hips, where the dress naturally tucked inward to fit closer to her figure, resulting in a rather normal-looking dress that she could potentially use for hip accentuation. It was… okay she was zoning out now, for sure, thinking about it, but the point she made to herself was that she could look him in the eye and say he was good, even as he fidgeted about.

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Kanji-kun,” she began, using her most matronly tone, “Even if everyone else is laughing, I’ll applaud you. You put a lot into this, and it’ll show when you get out there.” She sat on a counter next to him, to better look him in the eye and avoid his tallness. She was met with two grey eyes deadlocked on her, pupils dilating in a sort of innocent wonder and reverence. It was… sweet. Truly, honestly sweet. She couldn’t help but smile.

“When I was starting out, I’d take every time that producers or directors would talk as me failing them. I got angry, tried to overdo things, and totally screwed up my first few chances.” A pause, to let him react. To let him try to form the words ‘that’s bullshit’, to compliment her like her fans normally would. But Kanji stayed quiet. He just listened to her. Rise. Talking about Risette instead of being Risette. That was… crap she was making a speech, wasn’t she? Ummmm let’s see where was she… um… screwed up! Yeah alright!

“M-my point is… even when I was on small stages, I had a couple of people looking out for me. So I just thought of them, how they’d like to see me perform. And suddenly, everyone else mattered a whole lot less, you know?” She poked his nose, breaking him out of his little trance at her words. “So just think about me and know I’m gonna be proud of my little Kanji-chan. And Naoto-kun, of course! She’ll be so impressed by your little sway and..”

“I-I GET IT! ALRIGHT, FINE!” he stammered, backpedaling. She couldn’t help but giggle as he ran into a desk behind him, knocking over a chair and more than a few papers in his way. She expected a ‘shut up!’ in return, as had become customary for any time she’d teased him, but instead, a hand was placed on her shoulder back.

“… Thanks, Rise. Really. Let’s… let’s knock ‘em dead, alright?”

It was Rise’s turn to be stunned for a moment before she shook her head. “Yeah! We’ll give Naoto-kun and everyone else something to remember, whether they figure out how awesome you are or not!”

“Hell yeah!”

—

She was pretty sure it was at that time she knew she had SOMETHING more than just a nice friendship with that boy. But she’d tucked it away. Senpai needed the attention, he was the one talking to her about her problems. He was the one who’d support her, who’d wait for her after concerts, who’d let her be a little bitchy and mopey sometimes if she felt like it.

And yet… Kanji was there for her when it didn’t turn out that way.

And when she was ready for him to be there… well, there he was. Finally putting all of her words of encouragement to use. Finally having grown a spine. Finally being the kind of man she’d want him to be. Being the kind she could cuddle against and tell all of her secrets, all of her frustration. To be totally honest with him before she could be totally honest with herself. The kind of perfect man for a woman who needed someone.

Holding Naoto Shirogane’s hand.

A wheezy breath escaped her throat before she turned away.

**Author's Note:**

> Had a few ideas rattling around in my head. Finds a lot of similarities to Spotlights On Us, but I wanted it to take a more in-depth look. I mean, this is my usual kind of fluffy stuff, but Rise's relationship with Kanji is as fascinating as it is heartbreaking to me.


End file.
